Wow - The Muskoka Ironman 70.3 Race Report

Um, yeah ... I don't really have an explanation right now. But I'll give it a try.

It's been a long year building up to one day. That's a lot of pressure for one race, to make or break an entire year of training. So let's get to the race and see what happened.

Swim:
I lined up in the second row center, expecting a little bit of jostling, but giving me a good chance to find some quick moving feet to follow. And that's exactly what happened. I took a kick to the jaw and another to the nose, but there wasn't any blood, and I got in a good draft. As I described yesterday, I wanted the swim to be comfortably hard, and in the draft, that translates to speed. I was able to maintain that position for about half the swim, then I lost my leader. I tried to catch a few others, but with a sparse crowd, people had more room to maneuver, and it was easy to lose the feet if you weren't paying attention. But I also noticed the sparse crowd, which meant I was somewhere near the front. The last few hundred meters were through weed-filled waters, which made it like climbing the side of a moss-covered hill. I got to the wooden steps, got a helping hand from a volunteer out of water, and was quickly stripped out of my wetsuit. Toss it over the shoulder, and start trucking up the hill. Some people were walking. My speed would be best described as jogging, but with my elevated heart rate and wobbly legs from swimming, it felt like sprinting. When I hit transition, I noticed that there were still a lot of bikes in the M35-39 racks, so I was in good position.

Bike:
The rain was continuing to hold off, but I was concerned about a chill, so I threw on some arm warmers and took off after the folks in front off me. I ended up pulling those back down to my wrists by the halfway point, but it was worth the time. The course starts and ends with a solid 15km of steep climbs. The section in between is better described as rolling, with a few solid climbs. I tried to keep my heart rate down on the first few climbs, but with it already elevated, there were a few spikes, but by 30 minutes in, I was in the right range. At this point, I was just collecting scalps. I'm a flyweight, so every time the road goes up, I'm at a distinct advantage. I was trading positions with another rider for about 20km, where he'd pass me on the downhills, but I'd take him on the climb, and put more space in on the flats. I kept up with my nutrition, a gel every 45 minutes, gatorade/whey protein at the other 15 minute intervals. I took water hand-ups at the aid stations at 34 and 65 km, and I figure I took in about 1000-1100 calories over 3 hours. Given the terrain, there was little chance for draft packs, although I did get passed by one around 50km in. Surprisingly, their cooperation kind of fell apart, and I ended up passing them again for good by the 70km mark. Some of the big highlights were catching two of the elite women. It's a good day when you're bringing back anybody in an elite wave. I knew I was passing a ton of folks. I'd spot them up the road, and slowly draw them back. I took the last few kilometers fairly easy, since I couldn't spot anyone close behind me, and I wanted to save my legs for the run. I also wasn't passed by anyone in my AG. I was moving up the ladder. Now, the question was, where on the ladder was I?

Run:
After a quick T2, I set out on foot to try to catch a few more people. Just out of transition, I was passed by a fellow from my age group, so the goal was to keep him in sight. The course is all up and down for the first 8 kilometers, so I settled into a "comfortable" rhythm, hooked a few runners up ahead, and reeled them in. Just after 8km, I rolled past another elite woman, so that makes three for the day. From 8 to 14km, the terrain is mostly false flats, so you can just settle in. As I passed one runner who was struggling a bit, he exclaimed, "Geez, I need to work on my running." And I thought, "If you can say that aloud, you need to run harder now." Continuing my good day, I pulled back the athlete who passed me out of transition, and hit the last 5km. This section is on one the Deerhurst Resorts golf courses. If you've never followed the golf cart path of a course, you're in for a surprise. All it did was zigzag back and forth, and each end was a climb or a descent. This was brutal. I was finally starting to fall apart, but I still had a few bodies I needed to catch, so I focused on going "fast enough". It had been raining off and on since the start of the run, so my feet were soaked. This made my feet slide around, especially on the downhills, and on each step I could feel my toes slamming into the front of the shoe. I was looking forward to finally being done. At around the 19km mark, I was passed by one of my competitors. He was flying. During the pass, he gave me a "Good run", and I responded with "Go get 'em". I tried to mark him as best I could, but the difference in speed was tremendous. I got to the last hill, then it was downhill and around the corner to the finish. I shouted my love to my wife, couldn't see anyone behind me, and trotted up to break the tape. I felt like I had a really good day, but I didn't know how good it had been.

How was it? I came out of the water in 57th place. I passed 35 people on the bike to move to 22nd. And on the run, I gained another 11 positions, to finish 11th out of 214 in my age-group. I thought I might get into the top 40, or sneak into the top 30, but the edge of top ten? My reaction was the title of this post. "Wow." Then I think I started giggling. And I'm still a little gobsmacked.

Official results:
Swim: 36:49 (1:51/100m, 57/214 AG)
T1: 4:18
Bike: 2:51:49 (32.8 km/h, 21/214 AG)
T2: 1:45
Run: 1:38:05 (4:39/km, 10/214 AG)
Total: 5:12:43, 76/1299 overall, 11/214 AG

I had a couple of mechanical issues. I discovered during the bike leg that part of the retention strap at the back of the helmet had snapped. I'm not sure what happened, and it was a bit uncomfortable, but since the fit is pretty tight, it wasn't sliding around on my head. I'll have to get in touch with Rudy Project to see about a replacement part. An even bigger issue was my watch breaking. I noticed the day before that part of the strap had snapped, but I had hoped that it would hold during the race. Instead, just after I put on my wetsuit, it flew off my wrist as I was about to put on my swim cap. Good thing it didn't happen in the lake, or I'd never see it again. I was able to put it in the "dry clothes bag check", but I was now racing without timing. I had a clock on the bike, but the run was going to be blind.

There were a few lessons from today. First, I'm pretty sure I'm 100% slowtwitch. The longer the course, the better. Guys who regularly crush me in sprint races, and even at The Chase, were no match today. I may not have natural speed, but I have what I've always referred to as "grip". I don't slow down as much as other people. Second, and similarly, I perform better on more difficult courses. On the bike or run, terrain that slows down everyone, slows me down less. If I ever do an Ironman, maybe I should do IM Lanzarote. It's reportedly the most difficult course on the series. Third, especially on a difficult course, running without a watch works well. You can just focus on a given exertion, and let it fall where it will. There's a certain freedom to that, which is good for long courses. You don't have the pressure of chasing a goal pace, which would be very frustrating with as many ups and downs as we saw today. Fourth, I just love racing. Passing people, and trying to keep up with people who passed me, is a rush like no other.

Coolest part of the day: Coming toward the town of Dwight on the bike course, there were a couple of volunteers on the side of the road, calling race numbers into a walkie-talkie. I didn't think much of it, but as we passed through town and the crowds, they were cheering the competitors by name. The volunteers were relaying the upcoming riders, and an announcer was letting the crowd know the name of the next rider. It was pretty cool to ride through a corridor of "Go Drew!"

Oddest part of the day: I was running through an aid station just past 12km. At the end of the tables, there were a couple of pre-teen girls calling out "Spray! Spray!" I shook my head "no", so as I passed by, one of the girls threw a cup of water in my face. WTF? As I continued on my way, I heard a woman (mother perhaps) tell the girls, "If they say no, don't throw water at them." Was this really a lesson they needed to learn?

All in all, an amazing day. A year ago, I never would have imagined being able to put together a day like this. A few hours later, and I still don't know how to react. I keep checking the results, afraid that I'll see a DQ beside my name because I must have cut the course. There's no way I went that fast. But I guess I did. Maybe I should be disappointed I missed the top ten, but I'm not. I mean, I wasn't supposed to approach the the top 20, and I'm 11th? I'm a bit concerned I'll wake up tomorrow, and it will be today again, and all this was a dream.